The Mistress of Death
by FluctusAlienis
Summary: A witch by the name of Peverell creates a powerful object and vanishes. Centuries later, a bloody battle is fought, and Hermione Granger has a decision to make. Voldemort is defeated, but the people she loves most are also gone. The flow of time must not be interrupted, but if she has the power to rewrite history will she give in to her selfish desire to bring them back?
1. Chapter 1

When Hermione received a note from Headmaster Dumbledore calling her to his office immediately, she was surprised. He had just come back after one of his long absences, and hadn't had a lesson with Harry in a long time. On her way there, she thought of a hundred different theories, but her musings were cut short by the croak of an ugly gargoyle.

"Well? Are you going in or not?"

"Oh!" exclaimed Hermione, "I'm sorry for making you wait." (Although, she thought, what else does a gargoyle have to do?) "cockroach clusters!" The gargoyle slid aside to reveal a long, spiral staircase. After a long climb, Hermione finally reached the door to the Headmaster's office, and clutching a stitch in her side, knocked.

"Come in!" called a voice.

Opening the heavy door, Hermione saw a large, circular room, the shelves of which were filled spindly silver instruments, some puffing colored smoke and whirring, and the use of which she longed to know. There lay the sorting hat, and there was the pensive which she recognized from Harry's description and from her reading. Many books sat on the shelves, some fat and edged with silver, others bejeweled and bound in cloth of gold. There were tomes in a locked glass cabinet, covered in scaly leather of a poisonous green color. A magnificent phoenix with brilliant scarlet and gold plumage was sitting on a silver perch and crooning softly, his tail waving like a living flame, and many portraits of the past Headmasters and mistresses of Hogwarts covered the wall, all of whom suspiciously seemed to be asleep and loudly snoring.

Dumbledore was sitting at a cluttered, heavy-looking mahogany desk, and was holding a strange, carved stone in the shape of an hourglass with his uninjured hand. A shining, ruby embedded sword in a crystal case hung behind him, the enormous stones glowing with a brilliant fire.

"Hello Sir" said Hermione, "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, Miss Granger," he answered "please sit down, we have much to discuss."

Hemione nervously sat in the leather armchair in front of his desk, and noticed how tired Dumbledore looked. The usually sprightly old man was sitting bent in his chair, and the amount of wrinkles on his face seemed to have doubled. Hermione tried to avert her gaze from his dead, blackened hand which, she thought, must have been hit with a powerful curse. To avoid looking at it, her eyes fell on the object in front of him. It was black and shining, two triangular pyramids, and there was a sign on it, a line inside of a circle scratched on one of its triangular faces.

"Are you wondering what this is?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yes, professor. Is it a horcrux?"

"No," said Dumbledore "but perhaps it isn't that different. It is what I want to discuss with you."

Hermione raised her head in surprise. What could this object possibly be? And why did Dumbledore want to talk to _her_ about it?

Dumbledore's light, sparkling blue eyes shone with an unnatural light in his old, wizened face.


	2. Chapter 2

**. Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter**

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"My dear" said Dumbledore, "let me start from the beginning." He sighed, and seemed to be deep in thought. Hermione straightened up expectantly, hardly able to wait.

"Once, there was a very powerful witch who had three brothers. The four siblings were all exceptionally gifted and loved each other very much. However, their power led to their demise."

Hermione listened closely, but couldn't understand why Dumbledore was telling her some sort of fairy tale, or what it could possibly have to do with horcruxes.

Dumbledore continued: "One of the brothers was about to marry the girl he loved, but when she suddenly died, he was determined to achieve what nobody else had, and bring her back. Now, all the brothers had a fixed goal, they thought that being as powerful as they were, they could conquer death. But each of them had different ideas. One said that an extremely powerful wand was needed, and that the person holding it would be invincible. Another thought that there must be a way to hide from death. But the one whose lover had died wanted to create an object that would bring the dead back to life."

"Like a horcrux?" asked Hermione.

"No," answered Dumbledore "he found a way to make his memory of her alive. He could talk with her and live with the shadow his mind created. But he knew that she was not real, and eventually decided to join her in the next life. His brother succeeded in making the wand, and, reveling in his power, couldn't resist boasting about it to everyone he met. Many were consumed by jealousy, and eventually he was murdered in his sleep and the wand was stolen. The third brother made a cloak of invisibility that could resist every curse, and grew so attached to it that he would not go anywhere without it. However, in his old age he finally decided that death was not something to fear, and welcomed death as an old friend after passing the cloak on to his son."

Even though Dumbledore was speaking, Hermione decided this story was a little far fetched. Anyway, was he warning her from trying to achieve immortality? She never had such an idea anyway. She had accepted death as a part of life.

Dumbledore interrupted her thoughts by asking: "Well, Miss Granger? Which object would you choose?" His eyes seemed to look straight through her.

Hermione couldn't shake off the feeling that this was some sort of test, and eventually replied: "The cloak seems to be the best, sir."

"A good answer," said Dumbledore, looking slightly pleased, "most would choose the wand, but a powerful wand is hardly that remarkable. However, let me continue the story. The sister had berated her brothers for their dangerous experiments, saying they went against nature, but they hadn't listened and said that she was speaking out of jealousy. Devastated by their deaths, she created a device that was the most dangerous of all. But after using it, she was erased from existence."

What could that possibly mean? thought Hermione, could the device make Voldemort vanish?

Dumbledore pushed the shining, black, stone object towards her, its triangular faces so smooth she could see herself reflecting in them.

"But you haven't told me what this is, sir" Hermione said, already expecting the answer.

"This" replied Dumbledore "is what the witch created. It looks like an hourglass, does it not?"

By this time, Hermione noticed that the portraits had stopped snoring, and that Elvendork Mintumble (Headmistress 1635-1668) was peaking at them through half-closed eyes.

"But what do you mean, she was erased from existence? professor!" Hermione exclaimed, not answering a question for the first time in her life.

"She attempted to go back in time and stop her brothers from dying, also proving that she was the most powerful. However, the device that she made also turned out to be more powerful than she. This not a time turner. No! Not at all! Perhaps she herself didn't know what would happen. When she used it, she was born as someone else many years before, and her brothers never had another sibling. However, she did not succeed in saving them and wasn't able to survive the strain of have two sets of memories in her head. She was called insane, with nobody believing her and saying that it was impossible."

Hermione stared at the object. "Is it possible?" she whispered, unable to believe what she was hearing.

"Yes, Hermione" was the answer. "It is."

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 **Reviews are always welcome!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

 _One year later..._

Pain was all Hermione felt. Sharp, hot knives were stabbing her whole body... then stopped. Bellatrix was shaking her, screaming. "...et the sword! WHERE DID YOU GET THE SWORD?" "We found it" she gasped, "It's not the real sword." The lie was obvious, and Bellatrix didn't seem to believe it, but the pain was to great to bear. She faintly registered Bellatrix scream again, and the Cruciatus Curse resumed.

Hemione kept repeating her previous words, sobbing, pleading, not even remembering why. She just wanted the pain to stop, wanted to die. She couldn't take any more...

She was woken by a voice yelling "NOOOOOOOOOO!" The voice was Ron's. He and Harry must have escaped from the cellar.

"Expelliarmus!" "Stupefy!" The room flashed with lights, and Hermione heard a thump. Then she was dragged up, and the cold, sharp blade of a knife was at her throat. "Stop! Or she dies!" Bellatrix pressed the knife deeper, "Drop your wands" she hissed "or we'll see exactly how dirty her blood is!"

"No" thought Hermione, to exhausted to speak "she'll kill me anyway, escape, escape..." but she already knew that Ron and Harry would never abandon her.

"Fine!" The wands clattered, and Bellatrix ordered Malfoy to pick them up.

"The Dark Lord is coming! Your death approaches, Potter! Now tie these little heroes up again, Cissy, while Greyback takes care of Miss Mudblood! I'm sure the Dark Lord won't begrudge you a snack, Greyback, after what you have done."

Was it really going to end like this? questioned Hermione, of all the ways she thought she'd die, being eaten wasn't one of them.

Then, she became aware of a strange squeaking noise, an ominous jingle. Bellatrix screamed and dropped her, as the enormous, glittering chandelier crashed on Hermione. Opening her eyes, she saw blood trickling from shallow cuts all over her body, dying the crystal shards lying around her red, like Gryffindor rubies. She vaguely thought that it was pretty. But then she heard Malfoy groaning, covering his bleeding face, and, gathering her remaining strength, lunged. Malfoy didn't expect it, and she managed to pull all three wands out of his grip.

Ron caught her before she fell to the floor, and Harry jumping over an armchair, took the wands and yelled a Stunning Spell at Greyback, who was blasted backwards and hit the wall.

"Dobby!" Bawled Bellatrix, "You dirty monkey! Kill it Cissy!"

"Dobby has come to save Harry Potter and his friends!" squeaked Dobby.

"NOW!" roared Harry. He threw Ron a wand, and dragged the goblin Griphook, who was clutching the sword of Griffindor, from the wreckage of the chandelier.

Bellatrix raised her hand the throw her knife, just as Harry and Ron grabbed Dobby's hands to dissaparate. They spun in the spot, just as the dagger was spinning in midair, heading straight for Dobby, and the world went black

 **This is the rewriting of a scene from "Deathly Hallows" with the original dialogue slightly modified. The importance of this scene will be revealed later.**


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